JFK's Vision for America & Tribalism | Stephen Kennedy Smith | TEDxBeaconStreet
thank you I got two rounds of applause already when they put my headset on they said I had the exact same head size as Ed Glaeser which I said was really great because he seemed smart so one of the last things that you see when you leave the Kennedy Library is this quote from John F Kennedy a man may die nations may rise and fall but an idea lives on and the idea he was talking about was the idea of America and that's what I want to talk to you about JFK's idea of America but first I want to tell you a quick story so this is me in the front of the golf cart next to the steering wheel in 1962 ten months after this photo was taken my father was planning the campaign of his brother-in-law when President Kennedy was killed in Dallas this is my great-grandfather President Kennedy's grandfather PJ Kennedy who sailed whose parents sailed right through presidents Channel behind us into Boston Harbor they came from Ireland and PJ went to work on the Boston docks at the age of 14 after they died of cholera so the Kennedys were immigrants and they came to America to find refuge and opportunity and this is PJ son in the middle of this photo my grandfather he's standing on the lawn of the US Embassy in England in 1939 he's one of the richest men in America one of the most powerful diplomatic positions in the world Roosevelt's ambassador to England before the war so the Kennedys have become successful in America to the left of my grandfather as you look at this photo is my mother and to her left is my aunt rosemary who was diagnosed with an intellectual disability and my grandfather was told by the leading doctors of her day his day that she should have a lobotomy and part of her brain cut-out she was left severely disabled for the rest of her life on the far right of the photo is my aunt Kathleen killed during a plane crash during the war to her left towards the middle next to my grandmother is my Uncle Joe a Special Forces pilot killed in a bombing raid over Germany and President Kennedy to the far left of the photo comes home from the war with a broken back his PT boat was sunk in the Solomon Islands his some of his crewmates were killed and he spent days swimming between islands in the dark until he and his crewmates were finally rescued so my story begins with an immigrant family that rises to fortune and power and then encounters suffering and wants to make meaning out of it and this is where the story gets interesting I think so William James the founder of the field of psychology once wrote an essay called what makes a life significant and in that essay he said that the solid meaning of life is always the same eternal thing is the marriage of some unhitch whole purpose with some energy fealty and here's the key phrase some man or woman's pains and there is always an everywhere the possibility for that marriage to happen the war changed John F Kennedy and he found his own habitual purpose he entered politics and one of his greatest speeches the American University speech was about peace and about mortality in the final analysis he said we all inhabit this small planet we all breathe the same air we all cherish our children's future and we are all mortal in the very same Japanese commander that sank JFK's boat attended his inauguration in 1961 this generation knew how to work together they created the institution's the United Nations the World Bank the IMF the European Union the arms control regime they kept the world safe from a major global war for the longest period in modern history they went through a tragedy together and ironically that tragedy deepened their sense of solidarity and commitment and dedication to one another what's missing in our country right now is that sense of solidarity and gratitude and it feels lonely life expectancy is down for the first time in our history a loss of meaningful work an atmosphere of division people feeling stressed in the absence of community has led to 40,000 suicides and 60,000 opioid deaths this year wealth inequality is at the highest level in our nation's history and we seem to have become a nation of tribes that talks at each other through computer screens and on television but not to each other but it's possible that we can get an insight from these difficulties an insight that John F Kennedy might have had when he lost his brother and sister during the war and almost died himself floating the Pacific or an insight that I had sitting on my uncle Robert Kennedy's funeral train looking out the window at the faces of the millions of people that we passed by an insight that life is incredibly beautiful and also heartbreakingly sad and that we are all bound together in the words of dr. King an inescapable network of mutuality John F Kennedy believed in certain ideas one was the idea of America the idea that we are not defined only by our tribe our race our religion or ethnicity or gender our sexuality or any other social category but ultimately by our common belief in certain democratic constitutional American and yes human ideals those ideals are defined in founding documents but they stretch all the way back to the Greeks and Kennedy admired the right to the pursuit of happiness quality under the law freedom of speech liberty and justice for all when those ideals were not observed he spoke out as in the case of civil rights but he also believed that ideals and arguments are not enough he believed in service he put his life on the line and gave everything for the country they gave him in our family so much and so did John McCain and John Lewis and George Bush Senior the last American president to serve in combat Republicans and Democrats all of whom got the Profiles in Courage Award right here in this room for their service to our country not in the military but for their political courage they believed in service too so yes the country is different since JFK there have been changes in the global economy there have been changes in the diversity of our nation the advent of social media and talk television with their algorithms and business models that divide us but is there something that we can learn from this generation that could help to bring our country closer together I think there is there is one thing that John F Kennedy in every generation of Americans did up until 1965 together that was a melting pot for every part of the country in every walk of life they served in the military my uncle's my father and seven of my uncle's served in the Armed Forces and one died in the Second World War they did something together and we respect them for it and even today the military is the most respected institution in American life and we thank these GIS with the GI Bill which paid their college tuition so I'm not advocating militarism but here's an idea how about a GI Bill for national service how about paying the college tuition of everyone who is willing to work for their country working in a school a national park helping with the national disaster or the elderly or the homeless how about putting people together in teams working on our nation's problems together how about teaching our young people citizenship and service and civics for about 20 billion dollars less than half the increase in this year's defense budget we could pay the college tuition of all who are willing to serve imagine what we could accomplish together you know we might not agree on everything but I hope we agree that patriotism and shared sacrifice and worthwhile values and that a country that is dedicated to personal self advancement and self aggrandizement is no country at all we need each other to make it something different it's tempting to think of the death of John F Kennedy and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King both of whom died fifty years ago this year as tragic and they were tragic but the spiritual tradition that they came from is the tradition of tragic hope and the Transfiguration of suffering and they had the kind of hope that is not dependent on expediency or circumstances they dedicated themselves to certain principles so a man may die nations may rise and fall but an idea lives on civic identity based on constitutional principles and service the ideals of America the John F Kennedy believed in only live on if we believe in them too and act on them and live them out [Music] together I'll let I pick for the dog the desert eradicate disease half helium death and encourage the Arts and Commerce and not what your country can do for you as what you can do for your country [Applause] [Music] this country of the United States was not built by those who waited and wish to look behind them we set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained and new right to be one let the word go forth from this time and place to friend and foe alike that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans and the glow from that fire [Music] [Music] [Applause]